Saturday, September 28, 2013

We are into our second and final week at Park City. My favorite time of the year is Fall and Park City is a wonderful place to be for the season. Roger, Lea, Warren and I took a fantastic mountain bike ride on Armstrong Trail on Monday. The leaves were outstanding in their color, the sky a vivid blue and the temp was perfect for the ride. Warren and Lea are excellent mountain bikers and they were very patient with me.

Warren and Lea

Lea, Warren and Roger taking a break.

Roger and I at the bottom of King Con lift which we skied last winter.

It is fun to see the ski runs before the snow accumulates.

My favorite picture of Lea with the Fall color.

One last pic of Roger and me enjoying the three hour ride.

What a difference two days make in Park City. The weather went from a beautiful Fall to the first snow of the season. Thursday and Friday were cold and wet days with snow accumulating in the higher elevations.

Park City Ski Resort

Snow on the windshield of the Tour.

On Saturday the sun came out and the snow melted. Roger and I were thrilled because we are driving to Las Vegas on Wednesday. Thank you for checking in with us. We appreciate your interest in our travels.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

We left Sisters, Oregon, on Monday, September 16th. Leaving the high desert of Sisters, we followed the Oregon 20 to Ontario, where we picked up Interstate 84 to Mountain Home, Idaho. We stayed in Mountain Home for two nights and visited Mountain Home Air Force Base, where our younger son was born. What a disappointment to find our old street completely gone with newer base housing in it's place. After all it was 37 years ago.

Bear wants to show off his new toy from Sisters!

Oregon 20

Snow fences off of Oregon 20 indicate the heavy snows in the area during the winter.

Mountain Home Air Force Base

We left Mountain Home and drove on Interstate 84 south to Interstate 80. It was on that road that we drove through Salt Lake City to Park City, where we are staying for two weeks. We are having fun seeing my brother and Lea. In addition, friends from Tucson (Steve and Susan) were here this week and we had a great time catching up. Warren and Lea invited all of us over for a halibut dinner.

Andie (my brother Warren's Airedale) and Bear are having fun.

Roger opening the wine at Warren's.

Halibut that Roger caught in Alaska and sent to Warren is on the grill for dinner.

Warren is helping Lea get the table ready.

Tucson friends (Steve and Susan) join us for dinner at Warren and Lea's.

Steve and Susan with children Hilary and Spencer.

Yum, Lea is an awesome cook!

We look forward to another week in Park City. Thank you for checking in with us! See you next week.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Hello from Sisters, Oregon! Roger, Bear and I are thrilled to be in such a beautiful area of the country for a week of RV appointments and thinking about our trip to Alaska. Before I tell you about Sisters, I have a few thoughts on our Alaskan adventure.

Yes, the two month Alaskan adventure was definitely an incredible trip, one of those times that truly take your breath away when realizing the magnitude of the journey. We are grateful that we made it and the good parts of the trip definitely outweighed the difficult ones. We saw such rugged beauty in the northwest (no wonder it is considered a last frontier), healthy animals on the land and in the sea and gained such an appreciation of the individuals who settled the area long ago. We were glad that we were part of a tour group. The company made our trip easy in that we always knew where we would be parking our large motor home. The entire group of 24 rigs grew very close as we travelled over 5,000 miles together. Yes there were problems (cracked windshields and other motor home problems) but our fellow travelers came to the aid of anyone who needed it. There were two difficult roads. Dawson City, Yukon Territory to Chicken, Alaska and Destruction Bay to Tok, Alaska offered severe frost heaves, potholes, no shoulders, opposing traffic, lack of pavement in places and road construction. The campsites were not what we are used to in the United States. Very tight spaces and 15 or 30 amp as opposed to 50 amp were a challenge for us. On the other hand, we learned what a terrific coach we have and how well it performed on the trip. Nevertheless, Roger and I feel so fortunate to have made the journey.

We entered the United States at Sumas, Washington and were very happy to return to the greatest nation in the world. After spending the first night in Bellvue, Washington we headed to Albany, Oregon to visit RVing friends, Nancy and Dan. While in the area, we had our RV detailed and routine Freightliner maintenance performed. What a comforting feeling to have the Tour squeaky clean again with new filters. We then drove to Sisters, Oregon. It is here that we are having the rest of the work done (a problematic slide and topper and water pump replacement).

Sisters is located in the middle of Oregon, about 20 miles from Bend. Sisters' population is under 3,000 people. This is horse country and there is a rodeo that takes place in June. We love the area because the RV park is in our top five of the best in the country and Sisters is home to a system of world class mountain biking trails.

The Tour is very clean after it's Alaskan adventure and happily parked in a beautiful area.

Roger worked very hard on our mountain bikes to get the Alaskan mud off of them.

Thank you for checking in with us. We leave Sisters on Monday morning and head to Mountain Home, Idaho for two nights before driving to Park City, Utah for a two week visit. We look forward to seeing friends and family in Park City.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

This blog comes to you from Salem, Oregon. Our return into the United States was uneventful and we are thrilled to be back "home." Our farewell dinner with our touring friends was in Smithers, British Columbia. It was hard to say goodbye to new friends who shared an incredible two month adventure. The next morning we drove to Quesnel, British Columbia for the night. Then it was on to Sumas, Washington, where we entered the United States.

Beautiful British Columbia

Washing the coach in Smithers.

A glimpse of the Trans Canada passenger train with observation cars.

Reentry into the United States

Hello Washington

This coming week we have several appointments scheduled for the Tour, in Salem and then in Sisters, Oregon. We look forward to a week of relaxing and remembering our two month adventure in Canada and Alaska. Thank you for checking in with us.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Hello from Smithers, British Columbia! The internet availability has been very sporadic for the past week. Finally, in Smithers, British Columbia, we have it back! On leaving Skagway, we began our route back to the "lower 48." Although we are not there yet, we have covered a lot of territory. Our route took us to the following towns:

Skagway, Alaska to Teslin, Yukon Territory (160 miles)

Teslin to Watson Lake (149 miles)

Watson Lake to Iskut, British Columbia (208 miles)

Iskut to Stewart/Hyder (182 miles)

Stewart/Hyder to Smithers (206 miles)

Along the way we encountered beautiful scenery, black and brown bears, a noticeable change in the foliage (yes, Fall is here this far north) and the highway into Smith/Hyder that yielded many glaciers. Below are some of the pictures that we took along the way.

Bears everywhere

Our coach turned over 24,000 miles

Glaciers

Streams and rivers

A Sitka Spruce that is 600 years old

Salmon Glacier

Thank you for checking in with us as our two month trip comes to an end. What an incredible experience we have had! Hopefully the next blog will come to you from the "lower 48."